Pointless recount update

It’s kind of silly speculating about these numbers until all the counties have reported, but hell, I might as well dance with girl that brung me.

With about a quarter of the votes recounted, Diana Dino Rossi has padded his margin by 25 votes to assume a mandate-inspiring landslide lead of 286 votes. (Anybody know how to type the sarcasm smiley?)

Of course, both R’s and D’s alike are breathlessly awaiting the recount from King County… D’s because they understand that Democratic-stronghold King, being by far the largest county in state, is the most likely place for Gregoire to pick up votes… and R’s because they’re a bunch of paranoid whiners.

Personally, I’m finding it a little hard to get worked up over reporting the scattershot results of this recount in progress. I’m waiting for the second recount.

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Goldy- I doubt there will BE a second recount. While the two politburo chairs and their supporters postured, the professionals are getting the job done.

The P-I reports that the fuss in King County is about a whole uni9verse of 500 ballots (from the undercount of 22,000) thast show a voter indication of preference. Gregoire would have to pull eighty percent or more of those to pull even with Rossi- ain’t gonna happen.

Those 500 come from the entire universe of ballots cast in King County- early absentee, late absentee, poll, and provisional. No reason to believe that they could end up so overwhelmingly in Gregoire’s favor.

With that recount complete, what is the point of further counting? There will not be enough votes to be found for Gregoire to shift her to the victor’s column. She concedes and the State Republicans withdraw their lawsuit. It is all over on Wednesday.

I think the PI is reporting online that the number of “new” votes is a bit over 700. My understanding is that most of these are from polling places, since the absentees were scrutinized before they went into the hoppers the first time. Keep speculating; it wards off dementia.

Earlier P-I run of AP story had Logan saying about 500- latest version has Egan saying 710- still not enough without a phenomenol switch to Gregoire. Short of the King County certification, this is as close as it gets to saying “Done and over…”

And Goldy- I have no doubt you can find a way to keep traffic up- just keep letting us stay a little less than serious at times, it is the ONLY way to survive politics. One must be able to laugh at oneself, and poke fun at others. And when we all laugh together, no one needs bail on a capital (or capitol) murder charge…

YIKES- SHOMISH ON THE RADAR—I was sleeping through the late news- but apparently the Old Snohomish thing I have been hacking at with my so called “moron brain” — well KIRO reported in abreaking scoop that they, Snohomish, have found hundreds of uncounted votes— well well —

Should we call this the spicey 48. —- and Jenny Durkan with those steely eyes makes Diane Tibelius look like the bimbo from Housewives-Pills-Hormones-Adultry , suburbia saga stuff. Seems the newly minted right wing Evangelical R’s are watching them en masse, perhaps secret longings for…..a life.

I think both parties are whiners in their own way. Democrats, for saying that they want SELECTIVE recounts in limited counties. This challenge will not succeed, there is precedence for this (Bush v. Gore).

The Republicans challenge to stop the ballot counting process in King County will also be denied (re: Bush v. Gore). Unless the GOP can prove that King County’s policy is inconsistent with the other counties (they have not), the courts will call them whiners.

Let this recount continue. A manual recount purchase would be a dumb idea unless the margin becomes +/- 50 votes.

Believe me, there are an awful lot more Republicans quietly planning on how to proceed with the new administration than there are Republicans worried about the election being stolen in King County.

Chris Vance and Diane Tebelius represent the overwrought wing of the party (as does Paul Berendt on his side). The PR battle doesn’t change a single vote at this point in the process- it probably won’t get the winning party chair re-elected to his politburo post, either.

John, how can King county be consistent with other counties when other counties run the ballots through a machine and king county looks at them and marks them up? I believe that’s one of the complaints, that this isn’t a machine recount but a partial hand recount.

It would take a major aberation in KingCo to change this election at this point…unless 1 or more of the remaining Counties has screwed up big time in Gregoires favot. Jim I hope you are right about Gregoire conceding on Wed. Common-sense dictates if the margin is over 100 votes that is the way to go..except for 1 thing. You can choose specific precindts to handcount. Definite need for statewide uniformity and major changes especially requiring some form of voter ID. One of my buddies suggested at breakfast today that with contract out with VISA or MasterCard, issue voter cards with picture ID’s and seperate PIN #’s for each voter. You can vote at any cash machine!!! Sounds good in theory but look at all the stupid people that can’t even get it right this way!! They would forget PIN #’s, lose voter card and would probably be worse….mainly because there are lots of stupid, irresponsible people that can’t follow even the simplest instructions.

One of my buddies suggested at breakfast today that with contract out with VISA or MasterCard, issue voter cards with picture ID’s and seperate PIN #’s for each voter. You can vote at any cash machine!!!

Ummm…. and the point of a picture ID at an ATM machine is…?

And I wonder if we could cast our vote at an ATM outside our precinct for a $2.00 service fee?

Goldy–
Glad to see you are thinking outside the box!!
The picture ID confirms you is who you say you is. How about a fingerprint instead??
I’m just having fun here.
Seriously..if we want to truly have elections the goal should be to count “every LEGITAMATE ballot”. Dean Logan is wrong to say “Count EVERY ballot”. Allowing an illegal ballot has the same impact as denying a ballot. Who could deny that?? Let’s make sure all voter registration lists are up to date and compliant…make sure all voters are validated before their vote is counted and make sure all ballots are received by ELECTION DAY. Let’s look to close all the loopholes identified by this election. Strong internal controls are essential for voters to have confidence that their LEGITAMATE ballots are counted and their vote is not watered down by one single illegitimate ballot!!!!!

Absolutely. But denying 100 ballots out of fear that one or two of them might be illegitmate is not the same thing. We have a dual goal… promoting voter participation and limiting fraud. It’s a matter of striking the proper balance.

For example, we could absolutely eliminate all electoral fraud if we simply stopped holding elections.

Now Goldy..let’s not be too CYNICAL!!
I truly believe certain voting standards must be established and if they are not met by the voter, the vote doesn’t count. We have a couple years to educate everyone about this. If they choose not to pay attention & follow instructions know that failure to comply will invalidate their vote, then the vote doesn’t count. Let’s see who starts trying to shade standards. That will be telling, won’t it.
My concern again is that Dean Logan would be trying to make sure every vote counts instead of clearly stating every LEGITIMATE vote.
On this election, I suppose it will ultimately be decided in court. But after this election, it should be absolutely crystal clear. Deadlines, standards for voters, NO EXCEPTIONS, standardized voting methods throughout the entire state.
WHAT SAY YOU??

What say I? I say a ballot, from a properly registered voter, in which the voter put an X through the circle instead of filling it in, is a legitimate vote. It may be inconvenient for the vote counters, but it is still legitimate. Likewise, so is a crumpled or bent ballot.

Where is the potential for fraud in this standard? Or are you saying that humans can never be trusted to manually count votes?

Goldy–obviously this would count under current standards. I have never said the case you outlined shouldn’t.
What I am saying is that in the future we should have 1 clear set of standards. Voter intent, while in most cases is clear, should not be the point of emphasis. In future elections, their should be a clear set of instructions. Follow the instructions precisely or your ballot won’t be counted. I think all these exceptions are consistent with the dummying down of our youth and this country. Let’s avoid having a right or wrong way of doing anything!!
Let’s get a solid set of standards and take as much of the human judgment out of vote counting as we can. What is so hard about understanding “completely fill in the circle” or “completely connect the arrow”???

“Completely fill in the circle” or “completely connect the arrow”- surprisingly, they were NOT easy concepts, some years back, for my 84-year old grandmother. Mindsets, decades of doing things in a different manner- there are a lot of reasons why “substantial compliance” should be the standard- and it is in this state. When all is done and over with, I will be awaiting any proof of fraud or double-standards among the election administrators.

This is a very close race (duh!) and the system is, amazingly, working. Not perfectly, but errors are corrected and Dino wins.

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